Your curse, my gift
by Chaotic Heartless
Summary: [TOSDercCounterpart to Faded] Such is life, with the urge to kill and the understanding of hatred. And yet, he didn't understand how one part of him wanted it, and the other part detested it.


Hm? I guess I'm kind of insane, no? Anyway, this story came to me awhile ago, and it's been lurking in my thoughts, until it forced me to write it.

Basically, it's the love child of 'What The Sponge Sees' and Faded. It's AU-ish, and possibly, just possibly, they'll be some Derc action.

Oh, and I might make an actually story out of this...

**DISCLIAMER**: I own nothing but the plot folks, the plot! Not the characters, ya?

* * *

The forests and plains of Ragnoth were calm, relaxed as the nights' lights highlighted the dew on the leaves and grass blades. Besides that, the night was silent, and it seemed nothing was stirring tonight.

But, looks can be oh so deceiving.

Out from the thick underbrush, a figure stepped out. The creature in itself looked like something out of ones' deepest nightmares from what could be seen, for the being was still in the shadows.

Horns protruding out of their head, a tail twitching, and some odd spike-like shards was all that could be made out by the untrained eye, as the figure continued to hide in the shadows...

"Hmm... This place... It fills me with a odd emotion." The being spoke, stepping out of the shadows to reveal none other then Delma, a pink skinned Orcon female that traveled with a rag-tag group of Deimos.

Delma studied the area, sniffing the air and even though her sense of smell was nothing compared to Volk's, she could still pick things up. And tonight, the air smelled fresh, and if new had a smell, this would be it.

"If only the Deimos ruled more of this land..." Delma trailed off, taking a deep breath before she closed her eyes. Thinking..

Tonight, she'd come out to vent. There wasn't anything much better then killing something off, and watching as the blood poured down your hands as your victim took it's last breath. Such things were only Deimos nature, and every Deimos had that urge every once and awhile.

"Hmm... The plains would be boring... The forest, however..." Delma smirked, but paused for a moment. Her hand went to her shoulder, grasping the scar that Darc had given her. It had healed in a dark teal color, not very noticeable unless someone looked closely.

Delma shook her head, doing her best to clear the thoughts from her head. He made everything difficult, it seemed, especially now that the more she hung around him, the more she started to feel..

Again, her thoughts drifted to him, which only irked her. And so, with a dark, feral growl she took off into the forest, her metal claw weapon gleaming in the moonlight until she ran into the forest, completely covered by the trees' shade.

* * *

Delma bonded through the forest like a shadow, running aimlessly and she found that she had never felt so free. She had lost all intentions of making a kill at the moment, as she jumped over tree roots and ran freely, all her human-like worries going to the wind.

However, something caught her eye and she slid to a stop, kicking up dirt as her tail wrapped around a nearby tree root.

A nearby bush, sitting in front of her moved. The movement was pretty big, implying that it wasn't a small creature. In the shadows of the night, Delma could barely make out it's figure, but she had a pretty good idea what it was.

These odd like Sloth creatures ruled over these forests, and Delma hated them. It seemed when the party ran into one, Delma would always get hit by the odd attack that changed her into one of them. Due to the fact that these monsters were more of an annoyance then a threat, at times the party would stop to chuckle at Delma as she would fume in anger...

This, would be the perfect time to get her revenge. Giving a grin, Delma slowly bent her knees, raising her katar in the air. Her tail released the root (which had almost been ripped of the ground when Delma had used it to slow herself down), before, with a smirk, she lunged into the air at the figure.

"Die bastard!" She snarled, bring her katar down on the creature, smirking when she felt slight resistance, and a cry of pain before she flipped around and caused the body to fall off the weapon as the body was thrown a few feet away.

"What's this?" She questioned, standing up straight as the blood dripped off of her katar, staining the ground below. It wasn't the white-furred Sloth-thing she'd been expecting, but..

A human child, male, she assumed, curled up into a ball and sobbing in pain. She smirked, realizing she'd gotten more then she'd expected, and managed to harm one of those brat-nosed human kids... But..

Something lurked inside of her, something that made her feel..._bad_. She didn't know what the feeling was, and had great trouble finding a name for it. It burned like a physical pain, and also.. She guessed it was sort of like the feeling she'd disappointed the group, but this feeling had a odd edge to it.

Why was she feeling anything for a human child? With a growl, Delma approached the child, bending down and looking it over.

The kid gave a cry of fear and curled away, causing Delma to roll her eyes. The child reminded her of a kicked puppy, although it was much smellier and uglier.

"Kid, hold still." Delma snarled, placing her katarless hand on his shoulder. He kid completely stopped moving, and Delma could get a good look at the wound...

Straight through the shoulder, in fact, it looked pretty nasty. She didn't know why she suddenly cared, since she'd killed many humans before, but she found herself thinking of ways to help the kid...

Maybe it was because she felt that killing kids was wrong. She didn't have many memories of it, but she knew for a fact that most of the kids in her tribe were murdered off when the humans attacked. In fact, she hadn't seen a kid, besides those ugly little ant lava things, for as long as she could remember.

"Your not worth the Spirit stones..." she muttered, however, despite herself she lifted up her katarless hand. "Cure!" she yelled in a hushed voice, as a white glow surrounded the kids' body. When the light disappeared, he gasped, finding that his body no longer hurt...

"Are you going to kill me?" the boy asked, moving away from Delma. Delma stood up, cracked her neck, before studying the child.

She wanted to, but something odd stopped her. A slight breeze rolled in, causing the trees to rustle, and some moonlight to light up the kids' features. It was odd, because he looked like-

"Monster! Leave that child be!" A voice yelled, and Delma turned as suddenly some sort of metal knife hit her in the face, sending her back into the air a bit and knocking her to the ground.

"Boone, return to the town!" the female, Paulette, a member of Lord Kharg's party commanded of the child. The child nodded, before running off the way Paulette came.

"You disgusting Deimos! Attacking children now?" Paulette challenged, twirling her whip-like-chain around and around again, ready to attack.

Delma pushed herself up, standing up straight before snarling. "Wench! You are the one that attacked me!"she growled again, wiping off some blood of her face from a cut caused from Paulette's attack.

"To only stop you from attacking a child, monster!" Paulette snapped back in a counter, pulling into a battle stance. She hadn't set out looking for a fight, but it seemed this was the only way. Delma's eyes narrowed at this, and she too pulled into a battle stance.

The two stared each other down, eyes narrowed, both daring each other to snap first. Delma, always the inpatient one attacked, diving forward with her katar, ready to impale Paulette in the stomach.

Paulette, at the last moment, dodged by turning on her heel in a snap like motion. Her chain however shot out, and with a gasp from Delma it wrapped around the Orcon's arm. The motion was smooth after this, and as Delma was still in the air, Paulette pulled back, causing Delma to flip before crashing her back into a thick tree.

The tree shook, leaves falling down and covering Delma's body. Paulette smirked, her chain still wrapped around Delma's arm. In history, this had to be the easiest win yet. Infact-

Delma shot up, jumping forward and pushing off the tree with her feet, ending up in the air. Paulette stared up in shock, swearing that just moments ago the pink Orc had been knocked out. This shock made her weak, and Delma took advantage of that.

She landed behind her, and flipped around, the chain hissing and coming out of Paulette's hand, cutting it in the process. Wrapped around her katarless arm, Delma smirked as Paulette turned around, now broken from her shock as she pulled into a battle stance.

That's when she realized something, and despite herself, she spoke. "You carry a katar, a human weapon..." Paulette hissed, her eyes narrowing.

"How observation of you. I'm going to use it to rip you to shreds, too!" Delma responded, lunging at Paulette with said weapon.

Paulette's father had taught her how to defend herself even without a weapon, and as Delma got close Paulette fell onto her back, before kicking her feet into the air and slamming her boots into Delma's stomach.

The action caused Delma to fall forward, the chain unfolding from her arm a bit as she landed on her back. Delma groaned loudly, placing her hand to her stomach as Paulette stood up, she coughed a bit. Well Delma was distracted from the blow, Paulette picked up the end of her chain that wasn't wrapped around Delma's arm, before pulling it backwards.

Delma hissed as it unraveled, the chain ripping the skin off of her arm, especially the knife, and leaving her arm to bleed. This caused her to push herself up, reminding herself that she was not going to lose to some simple human girl.

Delma narrowed her eyes, whipping her bleeding arm to the side and causing blood to fly off and land on a nearby tree, staining the brown bark with the thick substance.

Again, neither moved, as the two went back to staring each other down. Crickets cried, and a lone wolf howled, as the two panted a bit, obviously tired from the fight.

Paulette was the first to strike, her chain whipping out at Delma. This time, Delma sidestepped, before sticking out her Katar wielding arm. The chain wrapped around her arm, and she grasped it, before pulling it forward.

Paulette didn't let go of the chain, and was pulled forward. Delma however, pulled again and caused the chain to be freed, before throwing it forward and watching as it wrapped around Paulette's throat, a smirk on her lips.

Paulette didn't know what hit her until she felt the cold chain wrap around her throat. She cried out, her hands coming to the chain and grasping it, as she made weak attempts to free herself.

Nothing worked, and Delma tightened it. Paulette let out a gasp, and struggled some more as Delma used the chain to pull her forward, studying her facial features.

"Hmm... Humans are so weak." Delma muttered, as Paulette stopped struggling, going a bit weak. Delma laughed, looking down at her bleeding arm, which refused to stop bleeding, before going back to studying Paulette's face.

"Wind Slasher!"

* * *

The attack sent both females back about ten feet, the chain unraveling from Delma's grasp as she fell on her tail. She gasped, growling at the pain before looking up.

Paulette was ten feet away, her body sprawled out against the soft dirt. She appeared to have been knocked out by the assault, which caused Delma to smirk. However, a sudden pain in her side alerted her to injured arm, which was bleeding badly now that it seemed to have struck up against a rock when she was blasted back.

"Delma..." A raspy voice snarled, reminding her that she _had_ indeed been hit with an attack. She looked up to see Darc, and even in the dark, she could see his annoyed expression.

Delma glared up at him, and he glared back. His glare was much more intimidating, so she diverted her glaze to her bleeding arm. A growl caught her attention, and she looked up to see Darc standing before her. She couldn't help wonder why she hadn't heard him approach, but she guessed he was annoyed with her sitting down.

Standing up, Delma motioned to Paulette's awake unconscious form. "What are we going to do with the human?" Delma spoke, trying to stop Darc from looking at her the way he was.

He growled, shaking his head. "Killing her now would be pointless." he stated simply, before turning on his heel and walking away. Delma, never one to be left behind, followed at a slower pace.

They walked like this for awhile, neither one saying anything. Delma wondered if she was in trouble again, and also what the half-Deimos was doing searching for her in the _first_ place bothered her as well. It seemed every time she left to go off by herself, he was there. At times, she would wonder off to think, and she could _sense_ his presence, his raspy breathing, everything. Yet, she never allowed him to know she knew he was there, even if his presence unnerved her.

"Delma." he spoke suddenly, causing her to stop as he did. She suddenly pictured him with wings again, but she couldn't phantom as to why, so she shook the thought of with a grumble.

"Yes?" she asked back, innocently. She could tell that he was pissed off by the way he clenched his fists, and although he had his back to her, she could guess that his eyes were narrowed and his lips pulled back in a tight frown.

She spent too much time watching him.

"_Why_ did you wonder off again?" he asked, and she thought for just a moment she heard a _pleading_ tone to it. She decided that because it was late, she was only hearing things.

"Because I wanted to, obviously." she couldn't help herself, it seemed like the perfect thing to say back. She just had the sudden urge to annoy him more so, perhaps she could see him become livid with anger? She blinked at her own thoughts, guessing that blood lose was effecting her head.

Or, was as it because she just wanted his attention?

"That's not the point. I want a valid reason." he snarled, his fists clenching tighter. For some reason, she found herself smirking. She was getting under his skin, and for some reason... She found that a very pleasant concept.

"...Don't tell me a big boy like you was worried?" she couldn't help herself, the words had come out before she could stop them. She saw him tense, before she winced, hoping she hadn't pissed him off to bad, yet, because of this possibility, she felt kind of pleased with herself.

He said nothing, instead turned to look at her with a odd expression. She blinked, feeling awkward and finding the way the moon highlighted his features a bit... Nice? He placed a hand to his shoulder, before lowering his glaze to the ground.

"Fine, I wanted to kill something, okay?" she spoke, feeling a bit put off by his reaction. She had been expecting anger, annoyance, or a snippy comment, not some dejected expression.

"... Fine, just don't do it again." he snapped, looking up and looked like he was about to leave but he stopped, looking at her arm. He reached out, muttering something as he traced a finger down her arm. Her arm started to glow, and healed up. He then gave her a odd look, before he turned around and started to walk away.

"So you were worried, huh?" she questioned slyly, reaching behind herself to fold her arms. He stopped, and even in the little light, she could tell he had become tense. For some reason, she felt a slight victory, since that was a sure sign that he _had_ been worried.

"_Delma..." _ he growled warningly, turning slowly to look at her. His eyes were narrowed, and his red eyes gave of a glowing like effect. Delma backed off a bit, and his expression softened, but she gave it no mind.

Holding her hands up in surrender, she took a side step before walking past him. She stopped, a coy smile coming to her features.

She spun, using her metal claw to knock of the straps of Darc's breast plate. It fell to the ground with a thud. He spun around with a loud, annoyed growl, just as Delma jumped back a bit to avoid a strike. She found herself staring at his chest for a moment, before she looked away, slightly ashamed.

"Delma, are you trying to annoy me?" he questioned, looking down at his armor before looking back to Delma. She shrugged, tapping the ground with her foot in a nervous gesture.

"Don't you feel anything other then anger? You're either emotionless, angry, or annoyed. Nice rang of emotions there." she commented, her shame gone as he went back to looking at his face.

"Deimos don't feel emotions besides those." Darc countered, and Delma twitched a bit, before speaking in a sing-song voice.

"Oh really? We both know that's not true." she liked having him in such a place, where he was the uneasy one, and she was the one on top.

He narrowed his eyes, taking a step towards her. When she didn't move backwards, he continued forward until he was in front of her, frowning down at her. She looked up, ignoring how close he was.

"... I think you're trying to hard. Feel what you want to feel, and just because some other Deimos says it isn't normal, don't stop doing it." she spoke, looking down at his clawed hand. She was about to take a step backwards, when Darc reached out and gripped her arm.

"... Perhaps you are right. But..." his grip tightened on her arm, and she winced before his expression softened and he released her arm, his hand falling harmlessly to his side.

"But what?" she asked, her voice only a whisper. She didn't know why, but she felt weird.. Something she had never felt anything like this before, and it made her much more nervous then she'd ever been in her entire life.

"... I don't know what to do." he frowned, turning his head to look away. For a second, Delma wondered if they were talking about totally different things, but decided against such a thought. Darc was never one to drift from a topic.

"Well, just go with what you want to do." she replied after awhile, wanting to step back, but scared that it would ruin this place they had managed to create for themselves. Darc's frown grew, though she could only see the slightest outline of it.

".. Part of me tells me to do something that the other part says I shouldn't. That, is the only reason I am confused, because I want to listen to both." he closed his eyes, and Delma frowned, not really understanding what he was talking about. What she was suppose to say to that? She wasn't the best at giving advice.

"Well... Listen to one that gives you the strongest pull." she replied lamely, holding back a chuckle at the stupidity of the sentence. He opened one eye, and smiled a strained smile, and spoke.

"You wouldn't like the results of that." he closed his eyes again, before moving his head to look at her, eyes now opened. Delma felt her cheeks burn, and a odd feeling swell up in her chest, which caused her to look away.

After awhile, she spoke in a timid voice. "This is your problem, so it doesn't matter if I like it or not." Delma responded, keeping her glaze on the grassy ground. Why couldn't she look at him? It wasn't like he was going to bite her or anything.

She felt his hand on her neck, which caused her to look back at him. He was smiling in a odd way, and her expression must have put him off because he released her neck with a frown, before reaching up and touching her horns. She felt that odd, burning sensation in her cheeks return, and before she could step back he stopped touching her horns, and allowed his hand to back to his side, his hand just glazing her face.

"Thanks, but we had best get going." he gave her a pleased smile, something she wasn't used to, before he turned and started to walk away. She stared after him for awhile, before blinking.

"What was that about!" she yelled, regaining her facade and running after him, his deep, raspy laughing echoing as he carried his chest plate over his shoulder.

"Just a little taste of what's to come."

* * *

Kill me, I just did romance.

Romance, that isn't making fun of something.

I feel oddly disgusted with myself.

Hopefully, this will motivate some people to write some fanfiction for this couple, please! (

-Sponge


End file.
